Goodpasture coach will return to teaching soon

Goodpasture girls basketball Coach Joey Spann, center, talks to his players during the first half against David Lipscomb on Feb. 25.

Riding over to the hospital in an ambulance, Goodpasture girls basketball Coach Joey Spann remembers thinking, “At least we were ahead.”

Less than 15 minutes after being revived from cardiac arrest, Spann’s coaching instincts were still fully intact.

Spann collapsed in front of the scorer’s table at halftime with Goodpasture leading host David Lipscomb 14-12 in a Region 5-AA quarterfinal on Feb. 25.

“That’s the stupid coach side of you,” Spann said. “The coach down at Wayne County is a cousin of mine, David Byrd. He sent me a card and in that he said, ‘I don’t understand. You’re ahead. If you’re behind, I understand the heart attack, but not when you’re ahead.’ ”

Spann, 59, underwent quadruple bypass surgery and the surgeon also repaired an aneurysm at Vanderbilt Medical Center on Feb. 26. He was released from the hospital on March 4 and visited his players at school Friday. He will return to teaching in one to two weeks, and he will be back at coaching next season.

Spann, who is also a preacher at Burnette Chapel in Antioch, said the outpouring of support from visitors to his hospital room was uplifting. So many people visited that they had to be sent from the waiting room to the cafeteria twice during the first two days because there wasn’t enough room.

“One guy said I was fortunate to get a glimpse of my funeral — how people might react and I know it sounds silly, but there’s a lot of truth in that,” Spann said. “To see the support was pretty awesome.”

Spann said it was a blessing that doctors discovered the aneurysm.

“That was going to be the silent killer,” Spann said of the aneurysm. “The doctor said I have a strong heart muscle, no damage whatsoever — the heart of a 16 year old. But the main thing is that aneurysm is gone. They blocked it off. That’s what I think God’s hand on all this was.”

Athletic trainers, nurses, doctors and basketball officials aided Spann quickly at the game. When CPR didn’t restore his heartbeat or breathing after 90 seconds, a defibrillator was used to revive him. It took just one shock to bring him back and the ambulance arrived within 10 minutes of his collapse.

“I didn’t see any white lights or anything,” Spann said. “I wasn’t gone that long, but supposedly I was gone. For something as bad as this was, I was in the right place at the right time. It was the perfect storm in a positive manner. There were four or five nurses and my wife, Peggy, was one that was there. And they were cardiac nurses. My wife said she has been on response teams at the hospital that didn’t work like they did. Had I been in another gym, I might not be here right now.”

The gym got so quiet that spectators could hear the nurses talking to the doctor while they worked on Spann.

Lipscomb assistant boys basketball Coach Mike McPherson kidded Spann that he owes his life to Lipscomb, ironic in that the Mustangs are Goodpasture’s biggest rival. Spann kidded that he will take advantage of his close call next season.

“For the referees I’m going to hold my heart next year when they make some calls, so I’ll milk it as much as I can,” Spann kidded.

Spann suffered chest pain several days before his collapse and he felt a dull chest pain in the first half at Lipscomb. He got two stents to prevent blockages in 2001.

“When I hurt my chest, I should have taken an aspirin,” Spann said. “But I just thought, ‘Aw, that was nothing.’ ”

One of Spann’s assistants, John Temple, has suffered a heart attack.

“We’re an odd couple to be coaching kids,” Spann said.

Spann has coached Goodpasture the past three seasons and he coached Ezell-Harding before that. He led Ezell-Harding to a Class A title in 2002 and finished second the following season.